These easy Halloween Rice Krispie treats are super cute and so much fun. They're always a huge hit with kids of all ages!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- A simple, no-bake treat.
- So many different ways to decorate them.
- Fun family project—kids can make them with supervision.
Extra chewy and gooey, my favorite recipe for classic Rice Krispie treats has the perfect ratio of marshmallows, butter, and, of course, Rice Krispie cereal.
Decorate these fun, crispy cereal treats for Halloween parties, add them to your bowl of Halloween candy, or give them out as gifts to your spookiest friends!
🧾 Ingredients
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- Rice Krispies cereal
- European-style salted butter
- Marshmallows or mini marshmallows
- Wilton candy melts in different colors, as desired
- Candy eyes
- Nonstick cooking spray
🔪 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.
Spray a 13x9-inch pan with non-stick spray and cover it with parchment paper or wax paper, leaving some hanging over the sides. Spray again.
- Melt butter.
- Add the marshmallows and stir until melted.
- Stir in the salt and vanilla extract, if using.
- Add 7 cups of rice cereal and stir until the cereal is covered in the melted marshmallow mixture.
Gently press into the prepared pan. Let cool completely.
How to Make Halloween Rice Krispie Treats Characters
These simple steps are the same for any design you want to make, be it scary monsters, ghosts, or Frankenstein Rice Krispie treats. It just depends on the different colors used and how you apply the various decorations.
There's no right or wrong way to do this, y'all. Just have fun and be creative! I've listed some more inspiration a little bit later in this post for how you can decorate these festive treats.
- Cut the Rice Krispy treats into squares, rectangles, or other desired shapes. For simplicity's sake, we'll call the cut Krispy treats "bars."
- Melt the candy melts according to the instructions on the package.
- Dip a straw into the melted chocolate and push gently into one of the bars. Lay it flat.
- Spoon a generous amount of the melted chocolate coating on the side facing up.
- Using a silicon basting brush, spread and cover the top and sides of the bar with the chocolate.
- Garnish with sprinkles or edible glitter if you're using it.
- Dab a tiny bit of the melted candy coating on the back of one of the candy eyeballs and carefully set it in place.
- Repeat with the other eye... or, eyes. (Ooh, scary!)
- For Jack-o-Lanterns, use semi-sweet chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips to make the eyes and mouth.
- Move on to the next bar. Repeat until all are decorated.
- Chill for 30 minutes.
- Cover with squares of plastic wrap tied together with curly ribbon in Halloween colors.
Next time try these gooey brownies and decorate them for Halloween, too!
Serving idea
Instead of just laying these sweet treats flat, I decided to fill a jelly jar with candy. I used Reeses Pieces, but you can use candy corn, wrapped peanut butter cups, or whatever else you like.
Add a paper cupcake liner to the top of each jar and stick the straw down through the paper liner. The candy will hold the Rice Krispie treats in place.
This makes a perfect addition to your festive Halloween table set-up. Functional decor that's so temptingly delicious!
🎥 Video
Click on the image to watch me make this recipe from start to finish with extra tips! (Video opens in a new tab).
🥫 Storage
These Halloween Rice Krispie Treats store fine at room temperature for up to three days as long as you cover them with plastic wrap. Because they're covered in a chocolate coating, they stay fresh a little longer than plain/regular Rice Krispies.
If your house is really warm you'll want to keep them in a very cool area so the chocolate coating doesn't melt. You can stack the easy treats for storage as long as you separate each layer with some parchment paper or wax paper.
You can also put them in an airtight container and freeze them for several months. Great to batch in advance, and the perfect treat when you just want a little something sweet.
💭 Things to know
Expert Tip: If the Wilton candy melts are too thick after melting, add coconut oil or Crisco one tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency.
- Rice Krispie cereal is not gluten-free but some different brands are. Check your ingredients to keep these fun Halloween treats gluten-free if necessary.
- Spray your hands with non-stick spray before working with the treats. This will keep them from sticking. You'll need to reapply often.
- Press the cereal mixture down into the pan gently but don't pack it hard. Doing so will make the treats too dense.
- Use European-style butter like Kerrygold for a better texture and flavor. DO NOT use margarine!
- Use salted butter. It cuts down on the sweetness ever so slightly.
- If you don't want to use candy melts, add green food coloring to the marshmallow/butter mixture for the Monster Rice Krispie Treats.
- You can also cut shapes out with a cookie cutter sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. This works well with a pumpkin or a ghost cookie cutter—or some other simple shape. Great for a Halloween party!
💡 Inspiration
Here are some ideas of what you can make with the Rice Krispie treat recipe and a little imagination. I'm sure you'll come up with hundreds more—no magic necessary!
- Rice Krispie Treat Monsters—Use different colors of candy melts (you could watch Monsters, Inc. to get inspired!) and lots of candy eyes.
- Spooky Spiders—Dip the Rice Krispie treats into chocolate and use pretzel sticks as legs. Or, thinly drizzle white candy melts in circles. Then, use a toothpick to drag from the center out for eerie spider webs!
- Mummy Rice Krispie Treats—White chocolate drizzled diagonally in wide bands would create mummy-tastic treats. Don't forget the eyes!
- Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats—Use orange candy melts (or add food coloring to the Rice Krispies cereal mix) and a circular cutter. Add a green M&M as the stem.
- Frankenstein Rice Krispies—Make the scientist's famous monster by using black candy melts or black frosting as hair!
- Don't Forget Dracula—Red piping gel makes scarily realistic blood.
👩🍳 FAQs
Just about anything edible! M&M candies, Halloween sprinkles, nuts, colored sugar, piping gel, melted chocolate chips—the list goes on, and on.
A local grocery store might not carry them. If you have a specialty store with baking/candy equipment, check there. Otherwise, I linked my favorite products earlier in the post so you can order online.
Too much butter. American butter has higher water content so when the butter melts, there is more water. That's why I recommend using a European-style butter like Kerrygold or Plugra. There's less moisture and less likelihood that you'll have a soggy result.
Always allow them to cool for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime, brainstorm how you'll decorate your easy Halloween treats!
📚 Related recipes
- Day of the Dead bread is a Mexican tradition for All Soul's Day on November 1. It's a lightly sweetened and spiced yeast bread that's shaped to look like a heap of bones.
- Black Velvet Cupcakes are inky black cakes that are moist and tender with the classic flavor of Red Velvet. Looks spooky, tastes delish!
- This Pumpkin Cheese Ball is so adorable! Decorate it to look like a Jack-o-Lantern for Halloween or a pumpkin for Thanksgiving.
📞 The last word
When back to school rolls around it's time to start planning for the various classroom activities and class parties kids are going to be involved in, right?
These easy Halloween Rice Krispie Treats are SO easy peasy and so much fun to make that you'll be thinking of ways to decorate them all year long.
Grinch or snowman for Christmas, an army of spooky ghosties and Frankenstein Rice Krispie Treats monsters for Halloween, Easter bunny... use your imagination!
Better yet, use your kids' imaginations! They really are fun treats any time of the year.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Halloween Rice Krispie Treats
Print Pin Recipe SaveEquipment Needed
Ingredients
Basic Rice Krispie Treats
- 16 ounces marshmallows
- 7 cups Rice Krispies, 8 ounces
- ⅓ cup salted butter
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt, optional
For Decorating
- Candy Melts, I used 2 bags for this recipe
- Sprinkles
- Candy monster eyes
- Colored paper straws
I earn a commission from Instacart from qualifying purchases.
Instructions
Rice Krispie Treats
- Spray a 13x9-inch pan with non-stick spray and cover with parchment paper, leaving some hanging over the sides. Spray again.
- Melt the butter.
- Add the marshmallows and stir until melted and smooth.
- Stir in the salt and vanilla if using.
- Stir in the Rice Krispies until they are all covered in the marshmallow mixture.
- Gently press into the prepared pan. Let cool completely.
To melt marshmallows in the microwave
- Put the butter and marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl.
- Cook on high for 2 minutes.
- Stir. Return to the microwave and cook until completely melted, stirring at 30 second intervals.
How to make Halloween Rice Krispies Treats characters
- Cut the Rice Krispy Treats into squares, rectangles, or other desired shape. For simplicity's sake we're going to call them bars.
- Melt candy melts according to instructions on package.
- Dip a straw into the melted chocolate and push gently into one of the bars. Lay it flat.
- Spoon a generous amount of the melted chocolate coating on the side facing up.
- Using a silicon basting brush spread and cover the top and sides of the bar with the chocolate.
- Sprinkle with sprinkles or edible glitter if you're using it.
- Dab a tiny bit of the melted candy coating on the back of one of the candy monster eyes and carefully put it in place. Repeat with the other eye.
- Move on to the next bar. Repeat until all the bars are decorated.
- Chill for 30 minutes to allow the coating to harden.
- Cover with squares of plastic wrap tied together with curly ribbon in Halloween colors.
Notes
- If the Wilton Candy Melts are too thick after melting add coconut oil or Crisco a tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you're looking for.
- Rice Krispie cereal is not gluten free but some other types of crispy rice cereal are. Check your ingredients to keep these Halloween treats gluten free if necessary.
- Spray your hands with non-stick spray before working with the treats. This will keep them from sticking. You'll need to reapply often.
- Press the cereal mixture down into the pan gently but don't pack it hard. Doing so will make the treats too dense.
- Use European style butter like Kerrygold for a better texture and flavor. DO NOT use margarine!
- Use salted butter.
- If you don't want to use the candy melts you can add green food coloring to the marshmallow mixture for the Monster Rice Krispie Treats.
- You can also cut the shapes out with a cookie cutter sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. This works well with a pumpkin or a ghost cookie cutter - or some other simple shape.
Nutrition Facts
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The following are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- 13x9-inch pan
- parchment paper
- large pot or microwave-safe bowl
- basting brush
First published August 14, 2021. Last updated September 7, 2022 for editorial improvements.
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